shot1.org

Linux stuff below, please move along.

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At Facebook’s recent f8 conference, they announced some new features that get turned on by default.   One of the most concerning is the “Instant personalization” feature.   EFF has a good summary.

“Yesterday, Facebook announced Instant Personalization, whereby select websites would “personalize your experience using your public Facebook information.” The initial sites are Pandora, Yelp and Microsoft Docs. As Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg explained, this means that when you visit “Pandora for the first time, it can immediately start playing songs from bands you’ve liked.” Pandora, and other partners, can also link your real name and other Facebook information with everything you do on their site.”

Here is the link to the EFF Site and how to disable the “features”

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/04/how-opt-out-facebook-s-instant-personalization

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Just some geek notes for my future reference.

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http://twit.tv/live

http://live.twit.tv/

Issue

Windows XP service Pack3 boots “Applying computer settings” splash screen and then Blue Screens (BSOD) with Registry_Error message.    (Stop Error 0×00000051)

Troubleshooting
Performed System restore to prevous day, week, month – FAIL
Swapped Powersupply, Harddrive in 2nd system – FAIL
Ran chkdsk /F and antivirus scan – FAIL
Attemped to backup/fix registry – recieved memory crash for wmiprvse.exe

Fix
Started process manager and verified wmiprvse.exe was running.   Stopped the “Windows Management Instrumentation” Service.  Verified that the wmiprvse.exe process was no longer running.   With process stoped, backup of registry was successful.

Disabled “Windows Management Instrumentation” from starting at boot time.  Reboot and login sucessful.

Happy Firefox 3 release day.  In the spirit of the day,  I bring you my top Firefox Addons.

1) GooglePedia

2) All In One Gestures

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Can BufferZone recover from my bad browsing habbits?   Stay tuned for details.

Replacing your systems hosts file with a custom file is an easy way to block dangerous sites from communicating with your computer.  The idea is that when your computer is asked to goto a link, it has to check for the address of the site.   Before asking the public internet for the address, the system is configured to attempt to look up the address in the hosts file.   By following the instructions on the site below, you can replace your standard hosts file with a file that will intercept any requests for known bad sites and send the traffic back to your own computer generating an error.

Give it a shot.

Blocking Unwanted Parasites with a Hosts File

System 76 is giving away 4 free ‘powered by Ubuntu’ stickers

system76, Inc. – Ubuntu Linux – Community – Free Stickers

While you are there, you might as well buy a new laptop

Send a self addressed stamped envelope to:

United States

System76, Inc. (Free Sticker)
1582 S. Parker Rd. Ste. 310
Denver, Colorado 80231

Remote assistance in Windows XP works great but typically you have to have admin privileges to run it. If you are like me and dont want to run your desktop as an admin, you can use this quick technique to launch “Windows Help and Support” as a domain admin.

1) Create a new batch file

Start Menu, Run…, “notepad c:\adminhelp.bat”

2) Enter the following command in the batch file replacing the username and domain name as needed.

runas /user:administrator@somedomain “c:\WINDOWS\pchealth\helpctr\binaries\helpctr.exe”

3) Double click the batch and type the admin password and the Windows Help and Service Center will Launch

4) Click on “Use Tools to view your computer information and diagnose problems”

5)  Click”Offer Remote Assistance”

6) On the next screen, enter the IP or Hostname to connect to the workstation you need.